The history of
theological reflection witnesses to the Church's faith and attention to the
Virgin Mary and her mission in the history of salvation. Especially is this
evident in the Western Church.2
The deeper the understanding of the mystery of Theotokos, the more
profound is the understanding of the mystery of Christ, of the Church, and
of
the vocation of humanity. Concerning Mary, everything is relative to
Christ; only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully clear. Conversely,
it may generally be said, that knowing Mary illuminates our appreciation of
the mystery of Christ and of the Church.3
To the degree in which the mystery of the Church is understood, the mystery
of Mary is apparent. Knowing Mary, the Church recognizes its origins, its
mission of grace, its destiny to glory, and the pilgrimage of faith which
guides it.4
The Virgin Mary is like a mirror reflecting the mighty works of God,
which theology has the task of illustrating. The importance of Mariological
reflection derives from the importance of Christology from the value of
ecclesiology and pneumatology, from the meaning of Christian anthropology,
and from eschatology, and is an integral part of them.5
In the Eastern Churches, the understanding and appreciation of the Virgin
Mother of God developed differently, and is not the result of scientific
theological reflection. The veneration of Mary, when properly understood,
permeates the entire life of the Church; it is a dimension of dogma and of
piety, of Christology and of ecclesiology. This dimension needs to be made
explicit today in connection with the problems of humanity. Mariology
expresses something fundamental to the Christian life itself, to the
Christian experience of the world.6
Sound Mariology has always been understood in Christological terms. If the
Gospel revealed nothing
more than the fact that Jesus Christ, God and man, was born of the Virgin Mary, this alone would be sufficient
for the Church to love her and to draw theological conclusions from pondering this
relationship of Mother and Son. We need no
other revelations. Mary is a
self-evident and essential datum and dimension of the Gospel.7
Is There a Byzantine Mariology?
Researching this question leads to a
seeming paradox. On one
hand we find a tremendous richness of Marian thought in the liturgy, but on the other hand a virtual absence of specifically Mariological
studies in theology. The Mariological experience and piety of the
Byzantine Churches--Catholic and Orthodox--seem to be embodied almost
entirely in their worship. But we find no prominent theological reflection
on the subject, nothing that would parallel the specialized Mariological
treatises of the Western Church. Theology manuals contain no chapters
dealing with the place of Mary in the economy of salvation. The veneration
of Mary, which is so central in Byzantine worship, has not been extensively
expressed, analyzed, or evaluated systematically.8
This scarcity of theological reflection may seem to some a deficiency
in Byzantine theology. How could the Byzantine Church, which never prays to
God or Jesus Christ without at the same time also addressing her prayers to
Mary, and which constantly praises her who "... is more honorable than the
cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim...," neglect theologizing about her? Why has the Byzantine theological mind not been
focused on this enormously important aspect of its life and worship?
In the Byzantine mind, this seeming absence of theological study and
reflection is seen as an integral part of the "mystery of Mary" in the
experience of the Church. The Byzantine scholar questions whether theology
as the rational investigation of the truths of faith is adequate to
transpose into precise terms the real content of that mystery. Perhaps the
proper locus of Mariology is in liturgy and prayer, that is, in worship. This is reminiscent of Prosper of Aquitane's maxim:
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
In the Eastern traditions, Mariology developed through liturgical veneration
within the framework of the concomitant feasts; that is, it followed the
development of Christology and the Church's contemplation of the
Incarnation. All Marian devotion--liturgical and popular--remained
organically connected with the mystery of Christ. This has always been the
norm and criterion.
In the Byzantine spiritual heritage, the liturgy has been the principal
locus of Mariology. The liturgical expression of piety is often found to be
adorned with allegory and symbolism. This gave rise to questions about the
biblical character and justification of these expressions or forms. Where in
the Bible do we find information about Mary's nativity, presentation in the
temple, dormition? Yet these are celebrated as Marian festivals. Whatever
their poetic, liturgical, and hymnographic expressions, all these events are
real because they are self-evident. Like
every Jewish girl, Mary was taken to the temple, and she eventually left this earthly life. Simply because such information derives from the Apocrypha does not alter
their reality. The church contemplates the ultimate reality of these events,
not the poetic elaborations in the prayers and hymns.10
In Eastern Christianity, worship and liturgy are paramount. Liturgy is not seen as an action of the community. Liturgy is the procession
or entrance into the eschatological reality of the Kingdom of God. It is the
meeting place between this world and the Kingdom of God fully realized. Worship is not the commemoration of a past event; it is participation in the
events of salvation themselves, because, although these occurred historically,
they also occur outside the category of time.11
While the Byzantine tradition differs from the theological elaboration
common in the West, it nonetheless "belongs to the full catholicity and the
apostolicity of the Church."12
Some in the West have speculated that the Nestorian controversy, which was
lived in Byzantine territory, may have contributed to fuller liturgical
celebration of the Theotokos in the East. This development gave the
East a more satisfying and habitual expression of devotion to Mary, and
would support the notation that the proper locus of Mariology is primarily
in liturgy.13
The West, which lacks such regular liturgical expression, sought other means
of elaborating Marian devotion, such as defining privileges and giving
impetus to various movements.14
The exploration of three areas may enlighten our appreciation of the
Byzantine Marian heritage: the place of Mary in liturgical tradition, the
development of the veneration of the Mother of God, and a synthetic view of
its theological significance.
Byzantine Liturgy and Mariology
In the Byzantine liturgy we find four main expressions of Mariology: Marian
liturgical prayers; Marian feasts; Marian iconography; and Marian paraliturgical piety.15
Marian Liturgical Prayers
Each cycle of prayers concludes with a special prayer addressed to Mary. For
example, the groups of hymns called stichiras in the structure of the
daily services always conclude with the theotokion, which follows the doxology: "Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever
and unto ages of ages." This role applies to all liturgical prayer units,
daily, weekly, and yearly cycles, and also the sanctoral cycle. Whatever the theme of any liturgical celebration, the last word and seal will be the
Theotokos, Mary the Virgin Forthbringer of God.
Marian Feasts
The liturgical year includes a series of highly developed Marian
commemorations. Four belong to the category of the twelve major feasts: the
Nativity of the Virgin, September 8; the Presentation of the Theotokos
into the Temple, November 21; the Annunciation, March 25; the Dormition,
August 15. The feast of the Purification, February 2, belongs to the same
category and is also deeply Marian in meaning. Among the lesser Marian
feasts are the Protection of the Virgin, October 1; the Synaxis of
the Theotokos, December 26; the Conception of Mary, December 8, and
others.
Marian Iconography
The icons of the Theotokos are integral to the life of the Byzantine
Church. Their very position in the apse and on the iconostasis
indicated definite theological meaning.
An icon is not meant to be a visual representation to stimulate the
imagination for devotional purposes. Neither is it meant to teach or
inspire. In the spiritual sense, it is a living thing, the point at which
heaven and earth meet. St. John of Damascus called the icon a "channel of
divine grace." Laden with faith and grace, the icon is a mirror of divine
Revelation and gives testimony to the reality that the saving truth is not
communicated only by mere human words but also through wordless beauty.16
Also to be considered is the highly developed cult of the commonly termed
miraculous icons of the Theotokos, some of which have given rise to
important and extremely popular feasts.
Marian Paraliturgical Piety
In addition to the official Marian prayers and celebrations of the liturgy,
we find an enormous number of secondary or paraliturgical feasts and
services. To gather all the akathistoi to Mary, written after the
pattern of the renowned Akathistos attributed to Romanus, would
result in several printed volumes. They testify to the constant flow of
heartfelt piety, love, and praise directed to Mary.
Not all these compositions are of equal value and quality. However, the
outstanding Byzantine hymnographers like St. John of Damascus, St. Andrew of
Crete, St. Cosmas of Maioum, wrote some of their best works on Marian
themes.
In the products of their pens we find the true expression, contemplation,
and understanding of Mary in Byzantine tradition. The Byzantine patrimony in this area also includes the commentaries on these
themes in the homilies composed for Marian feasts by the Greek Fathers and
Doctors.
Historical and Liturgical Perspectives
Because the Eastern Churches have no comprehensive historical record of the
veneration of Mary, our
observations are limited. The first liturgical expression of Marian
veneration must have been the "concomitant" feasts, the celebrations
attached to the major feasts of Christ. Most likely the first Marian feast
in the Byzantine calendar was the Synaxis, December 26, which is
directly connected with the Nativity of Jesus Christ. Originally the name
given to the Sunday before Christmas was Annunciation. These facts point to
the Christological basis of the veneration of Mary. The Byzantine Church
contemplated Mary within the mystery of the Incarnation. This Christological
dimension is still evident today in the chief Byzantine icon, which portrays Mary as the Mother with the Child, is an icon of Incarnation.17
Concerning the Biblical expression of Marian themes, the Byzantine Church
focuses special interest on applying to Mary the terminology of the temple
and its cultic symbolism. The temple and its sacred furnishings are
understood by Byzantine hymnographers and preachers as announcing the
various dimensions of the mystery of Mary. She is called the Temple, the
Door, the Candlestick, the Censer, the Holy of Holies, and so forth. In this
context, the non-biblical feasts, like the Nativity of the Virgin, and the
Presentation into the Temple, are considered basically as the fruit of a
particular reading and understanding of the Old Testament.18
Also to be considered is the origin of certain Marian feasts rooted in the
construction and dedication of churches in places where events of sacred
history were supposed to have occurred. In tracing the history of Byzantine Marian piety we find that it is rooted
not in any special revelation, but primarily in the experience of liturgical
worship. Theological reflection on Mary did not give rise to her veneration. This veneration sprang from the liturgy as the experience of "heaven
on earth," as communion
with heavenly realities, as an act of love and devotion, that gradually
revealed the unique place of Christ's
Mother in both the economy of salvation and the mystery of the "world to
come." The Church preaches
Christ, not Mary. States a Byzantine hymn, "In her rejoices the whole
creation!"19
In celebrating the liturgy, there is really no time gap. In
the mystical area of time beyond time, Jesus' redeeming act and one's being
redeemed are going on together now--this day, hour, minute. When one is
praying with the Church, one is not praying a memory of an event; one is
living the dynamics of the event with that special awareness that recognizes
the presence of the Lord.20
In seeking to understand the meaning of Eastern Christian liturgy, the
Byzantine in particular, it is important to note that it is not symbolic in
the Western sense. A liturgical action has no isolated intrinsic meaning.
Neither can theology be appealed to for a definition or rational explanation
of a single sign or action, because Eastern Christian theology describes
rather than defines the reality of salvation. The Eastern Church resists
attempts to define meaning piece-meal by analyzing elements of liturgy.
Eastern Christian worship must be comprehended holistically, and liturgical
actions recognized as pointing beyond themselves to a greater reality in
which the Christian participates when worshipping.
In the Eastern and Byzantine world the cultic, liturgical origin of
Mariology possesses special importance for the understanding of its true
nature and theological implications. Mary is not the object of a cult added
to that of Jesus Christ. Rather she is an essential dimension of the cult
addressed to God and Christ, a quality of that cult.21
Biblical Theological Perspective
The Byzantine liturgy unfolds other Mariological themes that are biblically
based. Christ is the New Adam and Mary is the New Eve. This is the primary
and soteriological dimension of her veneration by the Church. The Byzantine
Church concentrates in Mary the whole biblical vision and experience in the
relationship between God and creation, the Savior and the world, as a
mystery of love whose closest expression in "this world" is the man-woman
relationship. God loves the world, God loves the chosen people, Christ loves
the Church as a husband loves his wife. More precisely, the mystery of human
love reflects the mystery of God's love for His creation. Mary stands for
the femininity of creation itself. Her femininity means responding love,
obedience, self-giving, the readiness to live exclusively in and for the
other. The woman responds to the initiative of man and flows to him, and in
this total self-giving she fulfills herself. Eve failed to be the Woman
because she took the initiative; she distorted the order of creation and became the cause of sin. The chosen people
of God failed to be the handmaid of the Lord in love and obedience. But
Mary, by her total obedience, restores something absolutely essential in the
order of creation. She is not the representative of the woman or women
before God. Mary is the icon of the entire creation as response to Christ
and to God. The traditional icon of Mary "wider than heaven" expresses well
this notion; it is often found in the apse of Byzantine churches.22
Ecclesial Perspective
The Church is not only an institution or community, but a sacrament in the
sense of being the epiphany
of the events of salvation. In this context, liturgy is not the way in which
the community expresses its faith,
but is the participation of those who believe in the timeless reality of
salvific events.
The Church is institution and the Church is life. Since the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation, ecclesiology has dwelt mainly on the institutional
aspect of the Church. These canonical and organizational aspects are
necessary and essential for the Church. All this, however, is not the
Church. The Church is new life in Christ, new joy, communion, love,
deification, peace. The Church is an eternal passage from the old into the
new, from this world into the Kingdom of God. This life is difficult to
define, but those who live it, no matter how imperfectly, know Mary is its
perfect expression, its very movement. As heart of the new creation, Mary is
the icon of Christ, the Bride of the Bridegroom, as is the Church. The
living experience of the Church herself discovers this identification of the
Church with Mary, and expresses the life of the Church in reference to Mary,
and the veneration of Mary in reference to the Church. The devotion of the
Byzantine Church is Mariological because Mary is the very embodiment of that
piety--its image, its direction, its movement. Mary is the oranta
eternally alive in adoration and selfgiving.23
Eschatological Perspective
As icon of creation and icon of the Church, Mary is also "the dawn of the
mysterious day," the foretaste of
the Kingdom of God, the presence of realized eschatology mentioned by
theologians. The one who is "virgin after childbearing" is also "alive after death" states the Kontakion
of the Feast of the Dormition. Faith tells us
that even before the common resurrection and the consummation of all things
in Christ, Mary is fully alive,
beyond the destruction and separation of death. The Christian East has never
rationalized this mystery.24
In the East, knowledge of God is not seen as the result of logical
arguments presented by theology.
Only in worship can human beings obtain knowledge of God. Such knowledge is non-rational; it is contemplative and mystical. Mary's total unity with Christ destroyed her death. In her, a part of this
world is totally glorified and deified, making her the "dawn of the
mysterious day of the Kingdom."25
Maternal Perspective
Mary was associated in all the mysteries of her Son's life on earth. She
stood at the foot of the Cross, and a
sword of sorrow pierced her heart. Her crucified Son made her our Mother. Each Wednesday and Friday the
Byzantine liturgy remembers her mystery of suffering and compassion in the
moving stavrotheotokia, Byzantine counterparts of the Latin Stabat Mater Dolorosa.
The experience of Mary as protector and intercessor is another dimension of
Byzantine Mariology. Mary is identified with all suffering and human tragedy. In this regard,
she is the icon of the Church as
Mother. This theme is emphatically expressed in the feast of the Protection
of the Virgin, and in the endless
flow of paraliturgical Marian payers and writings previously mentioned.26
The Byzantine Mariological Perspective
The role of theology in Eastern Christianity differs from that in
Western Christianity. In the West, theology is symbolized and encoded in
liturgical action. In the East, theology flows from liturgy and is subject
to it. Theological discussion is always dependent on liturgy, and can be
understood and experienced only in the context of the worship life of the
Church.
Mariology is not an independent and free-standing element in the rich
tradition of the Byzantine Church
or in any of the other Eastern Christian Churches. It is not studied in
itself. Rather, Mariology--doctrine and
devotion--is an essential element of Christian cosmology, Christology,
soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. It is not an object of faith,
but its fruit. Mary is not nota ecclesiae, but the self-revelation of
the Church. Mariology is not a doctrine, but the life and fragrance of
Christian doctrine in us.27
Brother John M. Samaha, S. M. is a Marianist who writes from
Cupertino, California.
End Notes1 The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation.
Rome: Congregation for Catholic Education, 1988 , no.1. This instruction
leans heavily on Lumen Gentium, chapter
8; Marialis Cultus; Redemptoris Mater.
2
Ibid., n.2 ff.
3 Ibid., nn.18-19.
4 Ibid., nn. 20-21.
5 Ibid., n. 22.
6 Schmemann, Alexander, "On Mariology in Orthodoxy,"
in Marian Library Studies vol. 2, 1970; reprinted in Schmemann, Alexander,
The Virgin Mary. Crestwood,
N.Y., St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995, 60.
7 Ibid., 60.
8 Schmemann, Alexander, "Mary in Eastern Liturgy," in
Marian Studies, vol.19, 1968; reprinted in Schmemann,
Alexander, The Virgin Mary. Crestwood, N.Y., St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995,
p.85.
9 Ibid., 85.
10 Schmemann, "On Mary in Orthodoxy," 60-61.
11 Timko, Louise, "The Epitaphion," in Worship, March 1996.
12 Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatia Redintegratio), Vatican II, 1964, n.17.
13 Sherwood, Polycarp, "Byzantine Mariology," in Proceedings of
the fifteenth Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America,
1960.
14 Ibid.
15 Schmemann, "Mary in Eastem Liturgy," 86.
16 Timko, op.cit.
17 Schmemann, "Mary in Eastern Liturgy," 88.
18 Ibid., 89.
19 Ibid., 89,
20 Kapusnak, Sister Margaret, "Great Friday," in Journey
through the Great Fast, McKees Rocks, PA: Byzantine
Catechetical Center.
21 Schmemann, "Mary in Eastern Liturgy," 90.
22 Ibid., 90-91.
23 Ibid., 92.
24 Ibid., 92
25 Ibid., 92
26 Ibid., 93.
27 Ibid., 93.